Ryder appoints ten new trainee technicians to three year apprenticeship scheme

Ryder Europe has recently appointed ten trainee technicians to its new three year
apprenticeship programme. The programme has been updated with significant investment to
provide the best resources and support for the trainees. In addition, it will provide Ryder with a pool of skilled employees for the future.

Over 185 candidates applied for the ten posts and 100 were invited to an assessment centre which involved numeracy and literacy tests, teamwork tasks and a formal interview. Service Managers from the selected locations acted as assessors on the day to ensure the right candidate was chosen.

“The growth and development of these young people into skilled technicians is vital for the future of our business,” commented Steve Mulley, Director of Engineering and Maintenance. “The programme has been carefully designed to ensure that the trainees have a broad based experience in the business together with excellent college tuition.”

The new scheme strikes a balance between learning on the job, (supported by a buddy and Service Manager) and classroom learning at Ryder and at City of Bristol College. Bristol College is the preferred choice because it has an excellent reputation in delivering heavy goods vehicle qualifications. The strength of the facilities and the tutors adds to the success of the trainee technician programme.

To make the trainees feel part of the business, and not just linked to their particular location, the new programme builds in more opportunities for them to be trained as a unit, and monitoring and reporting is co-ordinated centrally to ensure the experience of every trainee is comparable.

“We hope that by providing the best training, on an on-going basis, these young people will go on to become the backbone of our fleet maintenance business, and provide us with successors to our supervisory and management structure in the future,” commented Steve Mulley.

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Notes to editors
For further information please contact Sally Canty on 023 8028 3255 or Helen Triggs on 020 7603 8573.